Founded in 2016 by Jim and Shelli Kramer, DeLuna Acres is a family owned and operated goat dairy located in Eagle, ID. Jim, Shelli and their children, Casey and Alexis have always had a strong devotion towards animals and the great outdoors, which helped influence the decision to start the farm.
Jim grew up on a large dairy farm outside of Philadelphia in the 1960s where his roots were established in the dairy business. Unfortunately, as happens to many farms, the economics of running a dairy were not profitable and the farm was sold to make room for urban sprawl. Being the first in his family to go to college, Jim studied Mathematics and later went back to earn his Master’s in Computer Science. This led Jim to the world of hi-tech where he spent thirty-eight years of his life as a software engineer and subsequently climbing the corporate ranks into executive management where he was responsible for several large, world-wide product groups at Microsoft and Autodesk. In 2015, Jim retired from hi-tech and relocated to the Boise area with Shelli where he went full-circle back to his childhood, living on a farm!
Shelli grew up in the great outdoors where she spent every summer backpacking throughout the Sierras with her parents. Many of the trips involved carrying heavy packs but as her parents began to age, carrying heavy packs and still wanting to get into the remote back country was a challenge, thus the transition to llama packing! Llamas are wonderful pack animals, but tend to be very shy and indifferent toward people, are also quite large and cannot easily be coaxed up certain terrains. Shelli’s passion for nature made it an easy decision moving to the Boise area, a true outdoor paradise.
This led to the fundamental question so often asked by friends and family, why a goat farm? DeLuna Acres started with the vision of raising and training pack goats as an alternative to llama packing. The first decision faced was deciding on a breed of goat given that there are over seventy different breeds in existence today. After exhaustive research and visiting goat farms first-hand, Jim and Shelli fell in love with the LaMancha. A bit smaller than most pack goats and lacking the ears found on other goats, the LaMancha possesses one of the calmest personalities you’ll ever find, the LaMancha won out. Shortly after getting the first three pack goat kids, Jim and Shelli decided to buy a few does that could be bred to produce pack goats for future herd growth. A few does quickly grew to six, then grew again to eleven, jumpstarting the farm’s second line of business, the dairy. Since DeLuna Acres was conceived, the farm has grown to include a herd size of ~35 dairy goats, Scarlett and Bella, the farm’s Standard Poodles, Estelle, the barn cat, and five llamas that patrol the pastures, providing 24X7 predator control!!
In the fall of 2017 DeLuna Acres began their first breeding program with a goal of producing the soundest, structurally correct and highest producing dairy goats possible. The herd was jumpstarted with strong pedigree from some of the top breeders around the country including the likes of Barnowl, Fir Meadows, Kastdemur, Little Orchard, Lucky Star, J-Havens, Tempo and Rocking-CB to name a few. The farm continues to add young stock from top breeders with a continual goal of raising top performing goats capable of producing strong results in the show ring and the milk room. 2018 produced incredible results in the show ring and 2019 continued the theme in addition to producing 4 does earning their Superior Genetics (SG) designation from ADGA. 2020 certainly was not a “typical” year with the impact of COVID, however the farm continued to grow the herd and produced solid performance results including 2 additional does earnings their SG designation, 4 does selected to the ADGA Elite Doe List and a retained buck, DeLuna LSF Marcus being selected as the top herdsire in ADGA’s Young Herdsire Development program. In 2021 the farm focused heavily on showing junior does vs. senior milkers to help gauge their development and were not disappointed with the results. In 2022, the herd continued to mature producing solid show results and stellar production results on the milk stand. The farm has come a long way since its origins in 2016. DeLuna Acres kids can now be found throughout the Northwest and as far south and east as Wyoming, Iowa, Texas and Tennessee.
As with any business, setbacks are a part life. In 2019 Jim and Shelli decided to live separate lives with Shelli returning to her home state and Jim continuing to run and expand the farm. Along the way the farm lost 4 senior does to illnesses but were fortunate to have doe kids from each to continue their legacy.
DeLuna Acres is thankful in so many ways for all the friends and mentors made along the way. Without their support, the farm never would have made it this far. Onward to another great year.